The American Academy of Pediatrics has taken a stronger stance against parents whoopin’ their kids.
The organization’s new guidelines argue spankings make children more aggressive and can lead to future health problems, according to NBC News.
“Children who experience repeated use of corporal punishment tend to develop more aggressive behaviors, increased aggression in school and an increased risk of mental health disorders and cognitive problems,” Dr. Robert Sege, one of the authors of the guidelines, said in a statement.
The guidelines expressed a similar opinion about tongue lashings.
“Parents, other caregivers and adults interacting with children and adolescents should not use corporal punishment (including hitting and spanking), either in anger or as a punishment for or consequence of misbehavior, nor should they use any disciplinary strategy, including verbal abuse, that causes shame or humiliation,” the guidelines read.
Sege argued children usually repeat the offending behavior after they are spanked and favors timeouts for little kids.
"Within a few minutes, children are often back to their original behavior. It certainly doesn’t teach children self-regulation," Sege told NBC. "Techniques such as timeout and other effective forms of punishment, the goal is to teach the child to regulate herself, so that she will have the ability to control and manage her own behavior. And that’s what it really is all about."
For older children, the guidelines suggested restricting them from their favorite activities.
“Discipline older children by temporarily removing favorite privileges, such as sports activities or playing with friends. If you have questions about disciplining your children, talk with your pediatrician,” the doctors suggest.
Parents are also encouraged to use positive reinforcement as another behavior modification tactic.
A 2013 Harris poll found 70 percent of parents still believe in corporal punishment, but Sege says change is happening.
"If you limit your surveys to people who have a child aged five years and younger in their homes, who are a new generation of parents, most of them don’t like to spank their children and often don’t spank their children," he said. "We think there’s a generational shift where today’s parents are much less likely to spank their children than their parents were."
The pediatricians might be onto something, according to Reuters. Teenagers in countries with a full corporal punishment ban are less likely to engage in fistfights. In those countries, boys are 69 percent less likely to fight while girls’ rates sit at 42 percent. In nations with partial bans, like the United States, boys are not less likely to fight, but fights between girls have dropped by 56 percent.
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